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Freelancers are also important for successful businesses

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Freelancers, consultants and contractual employees play a vital role in complementing a company’s permanent workforce.

This was a statement issued by the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) in light of a 2005 survey published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. The survey discovered that a large majority of employers are experiencing difficulties in recruiting people with the kind of special skills their companies need. Another recruitment difficulty is the lack of qualified experience of some prospective hirees.

The PCG said freelancers can complement the permanent workforce as they can offer the kind of flexibility, value for money, and cost-effectiveness that cannot be matched by full-time workers. They are also a boon to companies who want to lower employment costs.

Companies who want to hire people with specialist skills can also look to consultancy and freelancing as a great opportunity to hire the people that they need. This is because most specialist workers prefer to work on these types of work arrangements. Another benefit that companies can get from hiring specialist consultants and freelancers is the knowledge transfer and best practice skills the permanent staff can learn. In the end, companies bring in more benefits to the work environment.

This trend in hiring consultants with unique skills for particular business functions has resulted in the creation of companies that offer specialised services. Company formation professionals that can help entrepreneurs in the process of setting-up their companies are gaining in popularity. Business solutions experts are also becoming more in demand as they can assume certain vital business functions at a fraction of the cost.

Small business owners are afraid of IT

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A significant number of small business owners have revealed that they lack the required IT infrastructure to support their businesses.

Based on a joint study made by the British Chambers of Commerce and BT, it was discovered that more than half of small and micro businesses do not have the necessary IT support to help out with their computer systems.

It also revealed that of ten of these firms, nine have admitted that they have elected to not pursue any investments in new technology because the highly technical specifications and jargon only confuses them and this prevents them from actually purchasing the most up-to-date systems. The business owners also admitted that they would rely on their staff to fix any IT-related problems when their office computers or network fails.

It could also be deduced that price could have played a factor in business owners’ reluctance to upgrade their computer systems. With the rising cost of hardware and licensed software some of these owners could be thinking that it could be more cost-efficient to just stick with a still workable system even though it’s not top-of-the-line or the latest version anymore.

Company formation and business solutions experts advise business owners to learn more about IT concerns and how it could impact on their businesses. It would be better, they suggest, if business owners would actually take the time to get comfortable with new technologies. And even if they do depend on staff for fixing IT-related problems they should be on hand when the actual repairs are being done.

Most businesses do not have a good business plan

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A recently released business survey has presented some alarming information that businessmen and entrepreneurs should take into consideration.

According to the survey, most business plans prepared by entrepreneurs and businessmen are poorly prepared and written. These business plans also have crucial missing parts or information gaps.

The survey has pinpointed that these poorly made business plans usually don’t have a thorough marketing plan. Another part that is usually missing in these business plans is a financial forecast. In terms of actual data and content, the survey also revealed that these “faulty” business plans would usually contain overly optimistic forecasts and business growth assumptions that are not backed up by relevant and accurate data.

These are major faults that seriously undermine not only the credibility of the business plans but also put into question its effectiveness.

Business solutions experts advise entrepreneurs to invest a lot of time and effort in formulating a business plan. The first thing that businessmen should be aware of is to use accurate data in making the plan. A plan that is not based on actual facts is even worse than not having a plan at all because they can be lulled into a false sense of complacency.

Company formation professionals also urge against rushing this important step towards setting up a business. They advise that it would be better to approach company formation services to handle the tasks of setting up the company structures so that entrepreneurs can focus their time and energy on thoroughly researching and preparing a viable business plan.

3 Ways To Make Money Online

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More and more people are turning in their full-time office jobs to work from home. Making money online has never been easier with the growing opportunities everywhere.

Some people are out there making millions a year online while others are making a few hundred a month. It all depends on maximizing your resources and knowing how to navigate the web. [Read more…]

5 Ways To Improve Overall Project Efficiency

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By definition, a more efficient project is going to be a better one. A more efficient project is going to have cleaner results. Happier clients and employees. A better bottom line. So why is it that a lot of projects end up feeling like they are mired in mud?

Well, it may just be that the project manager hasn’t had enough experience to know what some overall best practices are, or perhaps hasn’t looked through all of the possible ways to improve overall structuring. Five are included below, and involve project and portfolio management, making goals more manageable, keeping the right work to break ration, reducing managers and meetings, and going mobile when applicable. [Read more…]